But, worse, one of his major beliefs, all his life, has been that people who are properly trained and reared can be trusted with any power, no matter what, and X2 refuted that most handily.

Mmm. I'm not sure how much I really think Charles believes that to start with. I mean, I think he believes he can handle the responsibility of having a machine that can obliterate all life on the planet in the basement, and ... that's hubris, to a certain extent. He can't, in the sense that he can't actually ensure that no one else will get their hands on it or force him to use it. And realizing that has got to be a hard blow.

But I'm not sure in a fundamental sense that he ever feels he should be trusted with his own power to start with -- I just think he feels that given that he has the power, not using it would be worse than using it as well as he can.